The Two Popes (2019)

Brazilin director Fernando Meirelles's ('The City of God', 'The Constant Gardener') multi-lingual adaptation of New Zealander Anthony McCartens 2017 stage play 'The Pope'. 'The Two Popes' stars Anthony Hopkins as Joseph Ratzinger/ Pope Benedict XVI and Jonathan Pryce as Jorge Mario Bergoglio/ Pope Francis. Produced for Netflix but given a limited theatrical run, which is how I saw it, 'The Two Popes' consists largely of imagined conversations between the two Catholic leaders prior to the latters elevation to the chair of Saint Peter. The film nicely opens up the stage bounded material to give it the appropriate global scale, and while it is a fairly cerebral film composed mostly of two people talking, it is its own kind of spectacle, two serious people discussing serious philosophical and theological ideas in a mostly civil manner. It is more then just the standard right / left debate you might imagine given the two principal figures reputations, I came away from this film with more respect for both Popes. While titled 'The Two Popes' as the source materials title 'The Pope' suggests this is more the story of one pontiff then the other, there is a lot conveyed about the life and backstory of the current Pope, some of it in flash backs where he is played by Juan Minujín, which may not be widely known to most audiences but is certainly worth knowing. Both Hopkins and Pryce are excellent as is to be expected playing serious and passionate men, but neither without a sometimes subversive sense of humor. A joy of a film, if only there were more of its caliber, I highly recommend. ****